If it's Wednesday, we're reviewing.

Our 2017 Goodreads Bookshelf is chock full of over 300 releases that we’re excited about. We expect that number to grow exponentially throughout the year, so it’s going to be another tough year to distinguish your favorite YA releases. To that end, I am going to try and predict your bookish future. I tried in 2015, threetimes, actually. So I am back again with more highly anticipated reads .

This year, I’m going to focus off the beaten path a bit. Most of the books I feature don’t even have covers yet, so take the time and go through their descriptions. I promise you, there are some real gems here and I just bet they’ll have amazing covers to match their interesting premises. I’ve created some categories to help sort some of your future reads and then placed the remainder of books in the final category below. Good luck and happy book hunting!

Really Real Reality

Teens are always trying to find themselves in novels. With so many great groundbreaking contemporaries published in 2016, such as Exit, Pursued By A Bear and Kids of Appetite, we’re ready to see how 2017 can top representation of modern day teens.

Little Wrecks by Meredith Miller: The friendship between three young women trying to keep their heads above water. It’s about feeling trapped, about sexual violence and the lie of freedom.

Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliott: The story of a teen girl’s struggle with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and how love helps her on the road to recovery.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: Author of one of our 2015 books, Albertalli is back with a novel about Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera: My current read, you’re not going to want to miss this one about when Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes.

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zetner: This book questions Can a text message destroy your life?

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios: When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.Deeply affecting and unflinchingly honest, this is a story about spiraling into darkness—and emerging into the light again.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community, and has no desire to try. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Fairy Tale Retellings

Fairy tale retellings are drifting away from the trend of Disney “happy ever afters” and taking a turn for darker, more uncharted waters in 2017.

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning: Origin story of the sea witch from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” told in the vein of Wicked – from the villainess’s point of view

Untitled (Stolen Crowns #1) by Jessica Day George: The princesses of fairy tales – grown up and living their Happily Ever After – disappear one day, leaving their daughters and sons to save them all.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones: A Labyrinth retelling–Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hiller: A Sleeping Beauty reimagining–Spindle Fire is the first book in a lush fantasy duology set in the dwindling, deliciously corrupt world of the fae and featuring two truly unforgettable heroines.

Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough: Examine the role this hot-tempered and tender-hearted founding father had in shaping the government and finances of the infant United States.

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang: The Prince and the Dressmaker is about a young 19th Century prince named Sebastian who secretly loves to wear dresses. He hires an ambitious young seamstress named Frances to make dresses for him and as their collaboration grows, so do their feelings for one another. Sebastian and Frances must find a way to balance their inner desires with the strict expectations of the royal family – or risk exposing Sebastian’s secret to the world.

The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: A tale of two friends on their Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe who stumble upon a magical artifact that leads them from Paris to Venice in a dangerous manhunt, fighting pirates, highwaymen, and their feelings for each other along the way.

Now I Rise by Kiersten White: More Lada in 2017. That’s all you need to know. See our review of And I Darken to understand why.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice. Movie rights have been sold to Fox, with Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) to star.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone: Justyce has long studied the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But do they hold up in 21st century America? He starts a journal “to” Dr. King to sort things out.Raw, revealing, and utterly riveting, Nic Stone boldly tackles American race relations.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by FC Yee: 15-year-old Genie Lo wonders if she’s qualified enough to gain admission to an Ivy League school, then becomes powerful enough to break through the gates of Heaven with her fists.

The Promise I Will Keep by Aisha Saeed: A Pakistani teenager enters indentured servitude to pay her family’s debts, and must choose between pursuing an education and freedom or the chance to save her village from a dangerous threat.

Soulmated by Shaila Patel: Two souls. One Fate. Will Liam and Laxshmi defy expectations and embrace a shared destiny? Or is the risk of choosing one’s own fate too great a price for the soulmated?

American Street by Ibi Zoboi: A story of a Hatian immigrant whose mother is detained by US immigration left to explore her new country, school, cousins on her own.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon: A laugh-out-loud, heartfelt YA romantic comedy, told in alternating perspectives, about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.

Want by Cindy Pon: Jason Zhou survives in a divided society where the elite use their wealth to buy longer lives. The rich wear special suits, protecting them from the pollution and viruses that plague the city, while those without suffer illness and early deaths. Frustrated by his city’s corruption and still grieving the loss of his mother who died as a result of it, Zhou is determined to change things, no matter the cost.

Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens: An honest, funny, and endearing account of a girl coming to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and sexuality while facing the opposition that follows.

A post shared by YAWednesdays (@yawednesdays) on Oct 10, 2016 at 10:15am PDT

Garden of Blood and Dust by KK Perez: A YA fantasy inspired by the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, the world’s first female serial killer, pitched as a cross between Maleficent and American Horror Story.

The Girl With The Red Balloon by Katherine Locke: A 16-year-old girl goes back in time to 1988 East Berlin, and lands in the middle of a Cold War conspiracy of history and magic.

A List of Cages by Robin Roe: When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian–the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller: A 17-year-old pirate captain intentionally allows herself to get captured by enemy pirates in this thrilling YA adventure.

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab: The battle between four magical Londons comes to a head in this stunning finale to the Shades of Magic trilogy.

Starfall by Melissa Landers: The second in the Starflight duology, we’re excited for more from Cassia and Kane!

A Million Junes by Emily Henry: Romeo and Juliet meets One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas: The Girl of Fire and Thorns meets The Queen of the Tearling in this thrilling fantasy standalone about one girl’s unexpected rise to power.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo: A 20-year-old California high school dropout with a criminal past who is mysteriously offered a second chance as a Yale University freshman.

Into the Black by Ava Jae: The second book in the Beyond the Red series.

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich: There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson: When all hope is gone, how do you survive? Before the war, Eden’s life was easy—air conditioning, ice cream, long days at the beach. Then the revolution happened, and everything changed. Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources.

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell: Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.

Lord of Shadows, A Ship Beyond Time, Caraval (loved it!), A Crown’s Fate, Dark Days Pact, The Last of August, Daughter of the Pirate King… oops… was I supposed to pick one… ☺ I follow by email. Thank you!!